This invention relates generally to apparatus for accepting an initially presented population of randomly oriented articles and providing a high-speed output stream wherein all the articles are commonly oriented for further mechanical manipulation. The invention is more specifically applicable to apparatus of this type, which are adapted to so treat articles, which are of the type including an elongated slender portion, and an adjoined enlarged head portion.
In numerous applications of processing apparatus, including for use in the packaging industry and the like, it is necessary to orient objects in a common direction and feed same as a high-speed stream for further mechanical manipulation and use. An example of such requirement occurs in connection with the apparatus disclosed in the present inventors' U.S. Pat. No. 4,055,455, which apparatus is useful in lining and testing container closures such as caps or the like. The caps or closures to be thereby processed, must be presented to this apparatus as an incoming stream wherein each cap is oriented with its open end facing in an upward direction; i.e., this is necessary in order that all appropriate functions of the lining and testing apparatus be performed. It will be evident, further, that in numerous other manufacturing operations, parts similarly must be oriented in common directions to enable a continuous stream for processing of same.
Pursuant to the foregoing, various apparatus for orienting and feeding small parts, such as caps, lids, or the like, have been developed over the years. The present inventors' U.S. Pat. No. 4,214,656 for example, is specifically directed at the cap orienting and feeding problem which has been described. In this patent, a construction is thus disclosed which enables increased dependability in cap orientation and also higher speed and feeding of same. These objectives are achieved by an arrangement which includes a feeder bowl which accepts the randomly oriented caps and feeds same from an output port thereof, as an in-line stream of caps oriented in a substantially horizontal plane. An inclined twisting chute extends from the output of the feeder bowl. This chute receives the in-line stream of caps and twists the plane of advance through 90.degree., whereby the caps are reoriented to a stream wherein the diameters are substantially in a vertical plane. A guide chute extends at an incline from the twisting chute and includes an input section for receiving the caps at the vertical orientation, an output section whereat the caps are oriented with their diameters parallel to the support surface, and a transition zone between the input and output sections, whereat the caps gravitationally tip and fall from the vertical plane to the reoriented, more nearly horizontal positions. A biasing device can be used in conjunction with this arrangement for biasing the tipping of the caps so that they fall with the open ends thereof, facing in upward direction. This can include a knife edge along which the caps roll on their side edges and means to encourage the desired tipping, such as lateral air jets.
Provided that the objects to be treated resemble a simple cylinder, apparatus of the aforementioned type is very effective in achieving the desired orientation and feed. However, there are numerous parts, including in instances, cap lids and the like, which take the form of an article including an elonged slender portion terminating in an enlarged head portion. For example, many cap closures commonly in use in the dispensing industry, include an elongated nozzle which extends from an enlarged base portion. Such base may have internal threads for securing to a container. Clearly, this type of closure cannot be effectively handled by the apparatus of our said U.S. Pat. No. 4,214,656. It will also be clear that numerous articles (other than cap closures) have the type of shape mentioned.
In accordance with the foregoing, it may be regarded as an object of the present invention, to provide apparatus capable of orienting, ordering, and rapidly feeding a population of randomly arranged objects of the type which include an elongated slender portion, which is adjoined to an enlarged base portion, to yield an output stream wherein all such objects are uniformly oriented, thereby facilitating further manipulation and/or processing of the said objects.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide apparatus of the foregoing character, which is capable of feed rates for the said objects which have heretofore been unattainable in prior art apparatus, which apparatus further, acheives unusually high dependability, as measured by the deviation in numbers of articles from the desired orientation at the output of the said apparatus.